Shipbuilding 1790 to 1899

Shipbuilding has long been one of the region's most important
industries. In 1294 Newcastle built a galley for the King's fleet and
ships were built at Sunderland from at least 1346, and at Stockton from
at least 1470. The early ships were built of wood but in the nineteenth
century there was a move towards building ships of iron.

SUNDERLAND SHIPBUILDING

Sunderland developed as a coal port but it was Sunderland's
place as the largest shipbuilding town in the world that gave the town
its fame. The first recorded shipbuilder was Thomas Menville at
Hendon
in 1346. By 1790 Sundertand was building around nineteen ships per
year. It became the most important shipbuilding centre in the country
in the 1830s and by 1840 there were 65 shipyards. Over 150 wooden
vessels were built at Sunderland in 1850 when 2,025 shipwrights worked
in the town. A further 2,000 were employed in related industries.
Sunderland's first iron ships were built from 1852 and wooden
shipbuilding ceased here in 1876. Sunderland shipbuilders included
Austin and Son 1826, William Pickersgill 1851 and William Doxford 1840.

TEESSIDE SHIPS

In 1678 Stockton was building ships of 200 burthen and Yarm
had an early shipbuilding trade at around this time, but it was in the
late eighteenth century that shipbuilding really began to develop.
Between 1790 and 1805 Thomas Haw of Stockton was a builder of ships for
the Napoleonic wars, but Middlesbrough shipbuilding did not begin until
1833 when a wooden sailing ship called The Middlesbro' was built.
Teesside's first iron ship was a screw steamer called The Advance',
built at South Stockton (Thornaby) in 1854, and Teesside's first steel
was 'Little Lucy' built in 1858. One famous Teesside-built ship was the
377 feet long Talpore, built by Pearse and Co of Stockton in 1860. It
was a troop ship for the River Indus, and was the world's largest river
steamer at the time.

HARTLEPOOL SHIPS

Thomas Richardson of Castle Eden and John Parkin of Sunderland
established a shipyard at Old Hartlepool in 1835 and built The Castle
Eden ship. The shipbuilding company of William Gray was established
here in 1862 and Gray became one of the most influential men in the
town. He was the first mayor of West Hartlepool in 1887. William Gray
shipbuilders won the Blue Ribband prize for maximum output in 1878,
1882, 1888, 1895, 1898 and 1900. The yard closed in 1961.

TYNESIDE YARDS

South Shields born Charles Mark Palmer established a yard at Jarrow in 1851
and built its first iron collier 'The John Bowes' in the following year. It was
the first ever sea-going screw collier and was built for John Bowes for shipping coal to London.
Palmers were also famed for building the first rolled armour plates for
warships in 1854. William Smith and Co launched the 1600 ton Blenheim
in 1848. W.G.Armstrong, the famous northern engineer, gained interests
in the Tyneside shipbuilding firm of Mitchells in 1882 and the company
of W.G.Armstrong, Mitchell and Co was formed. The yard built
battleships as well as a ship called The Gluckauf, which was arguably
the world's first oil tanker. It was launched by the yard in 1886.

SWAN AND HUNTER

Scotsman Charles Mitchell started building ships at Walker on
Tyne in 1852 and purchased a 6.5 acre site at Wallsend in 1873 to soak
up excess orders from his Walker shipyard. The new yard failed
financially and was handed to his brother-in-law Charles Swan. Charles
and his brother Henry were directors of the Wallsend Slipway Company, a
repair yard established by Mitchell in 1871. In 1878 Charles arranged a
partnership with Sunderland shipbuilder George Hunter, but in 1879
Charles died after falling overboard from a channel steamer whilst
returning from the continent with his wife. Hunter went into temporary
partnership with Swan's wife before becoming Managing Director in 1880.
Swan Hunters built their first steel ship at Wallsend in 1884 and their
first Oil Tanker in 1889.

MAURETANIA

A Most early ships built on the Swan Hunter yard were smaller
ships, like colliers and barges, but in 1898 it built its first ocean
liner 'The Ultonia'. It would build a further 21 liners in the period
1898-1903. The most famous ship ever launched was undoubtedly The
Mauretania', a Transatlantic ocean liner launched on 20th September
1906. The ship was 790 feet long with a beam of 88 ft and a gross
tonnage of 31,938 tons. It carried 2000 passengers on its maiden voyage
on 16 Nov 1907 and captured the Blue Ribband for the fastest crossing
of the Atlantic, a record held for twenty-two years.

STEAM TURBINES

A major pioneering development in marine engineering was the
steam turbine, invented by Charles Algernon Parsons. He patented the
first steam turbine on Tyneside in 1884. Parsons, born in Ireland in
1854, was the youngest son of the Earl of Rosse and a keen inventor who
worked as Junior Partner in the Tyneside engineering firm of Clarke
Chapman. In 1894 Parsons' Marine Turbine Company launched The
Turbinia', a famous vessel powered by electric turbines which can now be seen in
Newcastle's Discovery Museum in Blandford Square.

CLOSURES 1909-1979

Shipyard closures in the twentieth century took place during
economic slumps and occurred in two phases, between 1909-1933 and
1960-1993. Early closures included Smiths Dock at North Shields in
1909, which became a ship repair yard, Armstrongs of Elswick in 1921,
Richardson Duck of Stockton (1925), Priestman's of Sunderland (1933)
and Palmers of Jarrow and Hebburn (1933). There were 28 North East
closures in this period of which 14 were on the Tyne, 7 on the Wear, 6
on the Tees and 1 at Hartlepool. Six shipyards closed in the 1960s
including W.Gray of Hartlepool (1961), Short Brothers of Sunderland
(1964) and The Blyth Shipbuiding Company (1966). There were five
closures in the region in the 1970s including the Furness yard at
Haverton Hill, near Stockton, in 1979.